Despite city tree benefits, Calif. urban canopy cover per capita lowest in U.S.

Trees in California communities are working overtime. From removing carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air, intercepting rainfall and increasing property values, California's 173.2 million city trees provide ecosystem services valued at $8.3 billion a year. However, according to a recent study, more benefits could be realized if the Golden State's urban forests didn't have the lowest canopy cover per capita in the nation.

How the brain keeps time

Timing is critical for playing a musical instrument, swinging a baseball bat, and many other activities. Neuroscientists have come up with several models of how the brain achieves its exquisite control over timing, the most prominent being that there is a centralized clock, or pacemaker, somewhere in the brain that keeps time for the entire brain.

Rising Waters: Can a Massive Barrier Save Venice from Drowning?

It’s tempting to believe that the devastating sequence of hurricanes in the Atlantic this year has blown in a new awareness of the risks of rising waters and increasingly powerful storms on our rapidly warming planet. In a rational world, the destruction wrought by these storms would inspire us to redouble our efforts to cut carbon pollution as quickly as possible and begin planning for an orderly retreat to higher ground. 

A new NOAA tool is helping to predict US droughts, global famine

Agriculture is the economic engine that powers the Great Plains, the vast stretch of treeless prairie that covers parts of 10 states – and where the next drought can appear with little warning.

Now there’s a powerful new tool to help provide farmers and ranchers in the arid western United States critical early indications of oncoming droughts, and its name is EDDI.

Remote northern Alberta community has UCalgary grad to thank for its solar energy project

How many solar panels does it take to cover the arena roof in Peavine Métis Settlement?

It’s not exactly the kind of question Juan Pfeiffer was accustomed to answering over the course of earning two engineering degrees in his native Colombia, but it is precisely the question at the core of his capstone project for the Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Development (SEDV) program at the University of Calgary from which he has just graduated.

NASA Finds Tropical Depression Dahlia's Center Devoid of Rainfall

Tropical Depression Dahlia was weakening into a remnant low pressure area when the Global Precipitation Measurement mission core satellite or GPM analyzed the storm's precipitation. GPM found the center devoid of rainfall and light rainfall to the east of center.  

NEST360º's Low-Cost Jaundice Detector Passes First Test in Africa

The first clinical study of a low-cost, hand-held jaundice detector invented by Rice University students couldn’t have come at a better time for NEST360°, an international team of scientists, doctors and global health experts preparing for a Dec. 11 competition for $100 million from the MacArthur Foundation. The money would allow the team to carry out its visionary plan to halve the number of newborn deaths in African hospitals within 10 years.

Replicating Peregrine Falcon Attack Strategies Could Help Down Rogue Drones

Researchers at Oxford University have discovered that peregrine falcons steer their attacks using the same control strategies as guided missiles.

NASA Sees a Mix of Tropical Cyclone Ockhi and Dust Storms

NASA's Terra satellite passed over the Arabian Sea on Dec. 4 and found Tropical Cyclone Ockhi moving north as desert dust pushed into the region north of the storm.

Understanding the impact of natural atmospheric particles

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Leeds, has quantified the relationship between natural sources of particles in the atmosphere and climate change.

Their study, published today in Nature Geoscience, shows that the cooling effect of natural atmospheric particles is greater during warmer years and could therefore slightly reduce the amount that temperatures rise as a result of climate change.